by Amineddoleh & Associates LLC | Jun 14, 2017 |
The Getty Villa has long been scrutinized for acquiring objects without complete provenance, in turn, supporting the market for looted antiquities. These questionable activities were the focus of Chasing Aphrodite. The book delves into the often hidden world of museum management, exposes some of the unethical practices of museum employees, and examines the purchase of looted items, including the famed Venus of Morgantina (perhaps actually a representation of Persephone) that was eventually returned to Sicily. During the past decade, the Getty has returned dozens of looted items to Mediterranean nations. In 2006, the museum returned or committed to return four looted items to Greece. Then in 2007, in the wake of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s return of the Euphronios Krater, the Getty signed an agreement to repatriate 39 items to Italy.
Then yesterday it was announced that the museum would
return a 1st century BC statue of Zeus. Italian authorities proved that the object had come from an area near Naples after they found a fragment believed to join the figure. To support their demand for restitution, the authorities noted that there is no documentation of legal export of the statue from Italy. Interesting, the work was sold to the museum by
Lawrence and Barbara Fleischman (who have been implicated in other illicit antiquities claims) at the time that the now-disgraced
Marion True was still the Getty Villa’s senior antiquities curator.
We are still awaiting progress made on issues related to the extremely valuable and historically significant “
Victorious Youth” (also known as the “Fano Athlete” or “Getty Bronze”). As the statue is the only extant statue by Lysippos (Alexander the Great’s personal sculpture), its significance cannot be overstated. For this reason, the statue has become a fixture in the Getty’s collection, but remains a treasure that Italian authorities are actively hoping to recover.
